Breeders' Cup Day 1: Friday November 5, 2010

What a great day - though a bit chilly....in the 40s!

Breeders' Cup Ladies' Day - November 5, 2010

We are in Louisville!

Tomorrow is the kickoff to the BIG WEEKEND!  Our flights went well and we were at my cousin's house by 9 pm.  Met up with the other half of the group before heading out for our day's adventure....a visit to the Kentucky Derby Museum and lunch at the Derby Cafe!  I helped the others set up the "Stable Selections" for our Stable Competition and then came back to the house, looked over the Daily Racing Form and made my final selections for tomorrow.

Tonight we are going to the Galt House - one of the premier restaurants in downtown Louisville with a rotating restaurant that allows you to see the Louisville skyline.  Good times ahead.  Then tomrrow.....Breeders' Cup - Day 1!

FIRST Video! Breeders' Cup Preliminary Selections

Getting Closer! Final Preparations.....

This week I worked VERY hard on preparing my Breeders' Cup Program:

I also did quite a big of research yesterday when the "Crushing Zone" arrived virtually:

The last phase of preparation will be to complete my "Stable Competition" Program:



Midday - Maybe The "BEST" of the Day!

In today's Daily Racing Form.....

Midday may be even sharper for F&M Turf defense

By Steve Andersen

Midday will be a strong favorite in an attempt to defend her title in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 5, a race that drew just 11 pre-entrants from Europe, Japan, and North America.  Midday won the 2009 BC Filly and Mare Turf at Santa Anita and is arguably in better form this year, having won 3 of 4 starts, with Group 1 wins in England and France in her last three races.

The list of starters may be fewer than the pre-entries. Hibaayeb, who won the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot in June and the Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes at Hollywood Park earlier this month, may not run, according to Simon Crisford, the racing manager for Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin Racing.  Crisford said Wednesday that Hibaayeb may remain in California for the Hollywood Turf Cup against males on Nov. 13.

The list of pre-entries includes three other Grade 1 or Group 1 winners this year - Eclair de Lune (Beverly D. Stakes), Harmonious (Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup and American Oaks), and Plumania (Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in France).  The other pre-entrants include 2010 stakes winners from Dubai (Red Desire), Kentucky (Hot Cha Cha), Virginia (Shared Account), Canada (Miss Keller), and Forever Together and Keertana, who have placed in stakes this year.

Forever Together won the 2008 Filly and Mare Turf, the year she was champion turf female, and was third last year. She is winless in five starts this year.


Zenyatta - The Breeders' Cup Classic

There she goes - how exciting to watch her live from the 4th row....less than 10 days!

More on Goldikova - its good, it's all GOOD!

Head hopes for unique feat with repeat victory

Trainer who rode dual Breeders' Cup Mile winner Miesque stands on brink of treble with Goldikova

Freddie Head, astride a grey hack, emerges through the mist and blushing trees. He has a trilby on his head. Honestly, these French. We have Newmarket, with its blasted heath and single, shabby thoroughfare. Here their elite racing stables nestle in a Bourbon hunting forest, among palaces, lakes and parkland.



This one houses a mare on the brink of history, but you would not know it. Yesterday morning even the fitful percussion of a farrier's hammer seemed to obtain the sustaining, staunch quality of some ageless grandfather clock. As the sun broke through, autumn vapours were coaxed from the tiled stables, from the straw muckheap. The Turf can span few greater contrasts than the one dividing this somnolent scene from the sweltering crucible of Santa Anita, where Goldikova has pulled off consecutive wins at the Breeders' Cup. But that's why her quest for the hat-trick, this time at Churchill Downs, lends due substance to its American billing as the Thoroughbred World Championships.

The locals may have eyes only for Zenyatta, risking her immaculate record of 19 wins in 19 starts in the Classic. No horse, after all, has ever won three Breeders' Cup races. Rather inconveniently, however, she may find a precedent intruding barely an hour before she lines up on Saturday week. For Goldikova has looked as good as ever this year, and was yesterday trading on Betfair as 5-4 favourite for the TVG Breeders' Cup Mile.

Head, welcoming a party of British journalists and cameramen, offered a qualified tribute to Zenyatta, who has tended to avoid open competition apart from that extraordinary performance in the Classic last year. "Zenyatta is amazing, too," he said. "But what I can say is that some Group Ones in America are more like Group One and a half [ie almost Group Twos]. They don't always meet together with the best, with the colts, with three- and four-year-olds. But of course she's a champion, you can see that in the way she parades herself. She has a big personality."

He is well qualified to pronounce on greatness, as the only man to have both trained and ridden a winner at the Breeders' Cup. Goldikova and Miesque represent the twin Everests of Head's career in racing: Miesque, herself a dual winner of the Breeders' Cup Mile, was perhaps the best of over 3,000 horses he steered home before retiring, aged 50, in 1997. Remarkably, in fact, it was only in winning the Prix de la Forêt earlier this month that Goldikova claimed outright, with 11, the record she had previously shared with Miesque as Europe's most prolific Group One winner. Seldom does destiny deal its cards with such symmetry. It was in Louisville, for instance, that Miesque won her second Mile.

Goldikova may be more pliant but she, too, particularly responds to the hectic environment of American racing. "The faster they go, the better she is," Head said. "That's why she's so brilliant out there. When they start, they go. Here everyone stops, holds back. She had a very hard draw last year, and was a long way behind in the back stretch. I was a little worried, I must say. But Olivier [Peslier] knew what he was doing."

She quickened twice to pull it out of the fire that day, producing one of the most visually dramatic surges in Breeders' Cup history – in no way diminished by the fact that Zenyatta promptly did something at least as spectacular. And she returns in even better heart this time round, having won the Forêt by relaxing in front – in contrast with last year, when she failed to do so and was turned over at 2-5. "She's going to be favourite, of course," Head shrugged. "But a race is a race. You never know. It's not going to be a cakewalk."

2009 Breeders' Cup Mile

BEST of the Day - Breeders' Cup 2009: Goldikova wins BC Mile!

Godikova! Just what I wanted to hear......

I think Goldikova is nearly as special as Zenyatta, and if she wins the Breeders' Cup Mile this year she will become the first horse to go back-to-back-to-back....a three-peat....in the Breeders' Cup.  She was my "BEST" of the day last year at the BC and could be this year.  But I've been waiting to read what her connections say.  Yesterday when I watched "Pursuit of the Cup" online they did a segment on Goldikova and quoted her trainer Freddie Head (who won back-to-back Breeders' Cup Miles on Miesque!) as saying he was "thrilled" with her work.  THAT IS WHAT I WANT TO HEAR!

Today in the "Handicapper's Edge" the following appeared about her.....

Head expounds on Goldikova
Freddie Head said Tuesday that GOLDIKOVA's (Ire) (Anabaa) preparation for a record-breaking third successive victory in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) is going smoothly.
"Goldikova's work has been good and she seems in great form," said the trainer, speaking at his yard on the edge of Chantilly, France. "We haven't changed anything this year and had the same prep race. It was even better this year as we won the Prix de la Foret (Fr-G1) so for the moment all is well. I don't think she can do better than she is."
The five-year-old's two previous wins in the Mile came at the Santa Anita, whereas Churchill Downs hosts this year's Breeders' Cup. But Head is not worried by the change of venue, with Goldikova aiming to be the first horse to win three Breeders' Cup races.
"Going to Churchill Downs this year does not change much -- all the American tracks are about the same. “The weather may be a little cooler. I don't want too much rain. They have been having a very dry spell there and I hope it lasts. Even if it does rain, the ground is not going to be as soft as it was at Longchamp the other day (for the Prix de la Foret).
"She is traveling to America on Saturday -- it takes 12 hours -- she ships to Louisville or Lexington with a stop at (London) Stansted to put the English horses on the plane. She is a very good traveler and does not sweat much.
"We had a very bad draw last year -- we had ridden from the front in the Prix de la Foret and got beat and so I told Olivier (Peslier) to wait a bit with her -- he was a bit further back than we wanted but that is the way races turn out. I was a little worried for sure -- she was a long way behind the leaders in the back straight.  But Olivier knew what he was doing.
"This year we led again in the Prix de la Foret but she did not fight with him -- that was the big difference. She is very fast -- she loves the speed. There is no doubt that is why she is so brilliant in the States because they start fast which we do not do here -- the stalls open and everybody stops and holds back. The faster they go, the better she is and firm ground is good for her.